The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-05-25

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what your temptations are. The world viii
only scott at you. What then must a man
do! When the waves strike him with terrific
dash shall he have nothing to hold on to! In
this contest with "the world, the flesh, ant
the devil" shall man have no help, no coun
SELF
Our text intimates something different. In
those eyes that wept with the Bethany sisters
I sea shining hope. In that voice which
spake until the grave broke and the widow Of
| Main had back her lost son, and the sea slept
and sorrow stupendous woke up in the arms
of rapture-in that voice hear the command
and the promise: "Cast thy burden
on the Lord, and He will llsustain thee" Why
should you carry your burdens any longerl
conflict. He says: sMy grace shall be suffi-
cient for you. You shall not be tempted
above that you are are able to bear" There
| fore, with all your temptations go, as these
disciples did. and tell Jesus.
| Again: l commend the behavior Of the
disciples to all those who are abused and
slandered and prosecuted. When Herod put
John to death, the disciples knew that their
own heads were not safe. And do you know
that every John has a Herod! There are
persons in life who do no. wish you very
| well. Your misfortunes are honeycombs to
| them. Through their teeth they hiss at
you, misinterpret your motives, and would be
| glad to see you upset No man gets through
| life without having apummelling. Some SLAM
ger comes after you, horned and tusked and
| hoofed, to gore and trample you; and what
are you to do? tell you plainly that all who
| serve Christ must suffer persecution. 1t is
| the worst sign in the world for you to be able
| to say: II haven't an enemy in the world"
| A woe is pronounced in the Bible against the
one of whom everybody speaks well. If you
are at peace with all the world, and every
body likes you and approves your work, it is
because you are an idler in the Lords vine
yard, and are not doing your duty.
All those who have served Christ, however
eminent, have been maltreated at some stage
of their experience. Yo1 know it was 80 in
the time Of George Whitefeld, when he stood
and invited men into the kingdom Of God:
What did the learned DR.. johnson say OF
him? He pronounced him miserable mounte.
bank. How was it when Robert Hall stood
and spoke as scarcely any uninSpired man
ever did speak Of the glories of Heaven!
and as he stood Sabbath after Sabbath
preaching on these themes his face kindled
with the glory John Foster, a Christian
man, said Of this man: "Robert Hall is only
acting, and the smile on his face is redec.
tion Of his own vanity" John Wesley turned
all England upside down with Christian re-
FORM and yet the punsters were after him,
and the meanest jokes in England were per-
of the pulpit is true of the pew; it is true Of
the street, it is true of the shop, and the store
All who will live godly in Christ Jesus must
suffer persecution.
And l set it down as the very worst sign in
all your Christian experience If you are, any
of you at peace with all the world. The re-
ligion of Christ is war. 1t is a challenge to
1.-The world, the flesh and the devil;" and if
YOU will buckle on the whole armor Of God,
you will find great host disputing your path
between this and heaven. But what are you
to do when you are assaulted and slandered
and abused, as suppose nearly all OF you
have been in your life? Go out and hunt up
the slanderer' Oh, no, silly mani While you
are explaining away falSehood in one place,
fifty people will just have heard OF it In other
places.
counsel you to another course. While
you are not to omit any opportunity of set
ting yourselves right, / want to tell you this
morning of one who had the hardest things
said about Him, whose sobriety was disputed,
whose mission was secuted, whose compan-
ionship was denounced, who was pursued as
babe and spit upon as man, who was
you go unto Him with your bruised soul, in
some humble, child prayer, saying: 81 see
Thy wounds-wounds of head, wounds Of
feet, wounds Of heart. Now, look at my
wounds, and see what I have suffered, and
through what battles am going; and en-
treat Thee, by those wounds Of Thine, SYM
pathize with me- And he will sympathize,
and He will help. Go and tell Jesus!
Again: / commend the behavior OF the
disciples to all who may have been bereaved.
How many in garb of mourning! fyou could
stand at this point where am standing and
look off upon this audience, how many signals
of sorrow you would behold God has His
own way of taking apart family. We must
get out of the way for coming generations.
We must get off the stage that Others may
come on, and for this reason there is long
procession reaching down all the time into
the valley of shadows
This emigration from time into eternity is
so vast an enterprise, that we cannot under.
stand it. Every hour we hear the clang OF
the sepulchral gate. The sod must be broken.
The ground must be ploughed for resurrec-
tion harvest. Eternity must be peopled.
The dust must press our eyelids. ut is ap-
pointed unto all men once to die" This emi-
grafton from time into eternity keeps three
fourths of the families Of the earth in desola-
ton The air is rent with farewells, and the
black-tasselled vehicles of death rumble
through every street.
The body Of the child that was folded so
closely to the mothers heart is put away in
the cold and the darkness The laughter
freezes to the girls lip, and the rose scatters.
1 ne DOy III Tue udT TfeSI uelu Ol Snuldu says
"My head my head !" and they carry him
home to die on the lap of his mother. Widow
hood stands with tragedies of woe struck into
the pallor of the cheek. Orphanage cries in
vain for father and mother Oh, the grave
is cruel With teeth Of stone, it clutches for
it's prev. Between the closing gates Of the
,epulchre, our hearts are mangled and
crushed. Is there any earthly solace
None. We come to the obsequies,
we sit with the grief-stricken, we talk pa
thetically to their soul; but soon the obSequies
have passed. the carriages have left US at the
door, the frisnds VINO stayed for few days
are gone, and the heart sits in desolation,
listening for the little feet that will never
again patter through the hall, or looking for
the entrance Of those who will never come
again-sighing into the darkness ever and
anon coming across some book or garment, or
little shoe or picture, that arouSeS former as
sociation, almost killing the heart.
Long days and nights of suffering that wear
out the spirit, and expunge the bright lines Of
life, and give haggardness to the face, and
draw the flesh tight down over the cheek-bone,
! and draw dark lines under the sunken eye,
and the hand is tremulous, and the voice is
husky and uncertain, and the grief is wear
| ing, grinding, accumulating, exhausting.
Now, what are such to do! Are they merely
to look up into brazen and Implying heaven!
Are they to walk blasted heath unfed Of
stream, unsheltered by overarching tree?
Has God turned us out on the barren common
to die? Oh, no! no! no! He has not. He
comes with sympathy and kindness and love.
He understands all our grief. He sees the
height, and the depth, and the length, and
the breadth Of it. He is the only one that
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